Human writeable machine-readable data input have many applications. Example applications include test taking, product orders form, data input for voter registration, draft registration, elections or other government functions, all-star sports balloting, etc.
Another example application for human writable machine-readable data input is the purchase of lottery tickets or selection of lottery numbers. Many forms of lottery gaming allow user selection of lottery numbers. Such forms of lottery gaming include instant win lotteries, pooled drawing lotteries and Keno type lotteries, and include such games as Pick 3, Pick 4, and Pick 6. Other forms of games may also require player selections that may be facilitated by human-writeable machine-readable data input, e.g., horse racing or other paramutual betting.
Lottery tickets may be sold at retail establishments such as liquor stores, convenience stores, grocery stores and gas stations. An attendant operating a lottery point of sale terminal may also be responsible for ordinary purchases. Counter space and attendant time may be at a premium time for retailers selling lottery tickets. Speeding purchase of lottery tickets may help reduce the lines that occasionally form when an extremely popular game takes place. Thus, it is desirable to reduce the complexity and time consumption involved in processing purchases of lottery tickets.
The attendant time required for a customer to purchase a lottery ticket may be reduced and accuracy increased using play slips, also referred to as pick slips or bet slips. A play slip is a card, ticket, or other printed media that indicates a customers lottery number selections, and that may be used by the customer to purchase a lottery ticket having the indicated customer lottery number selections. Pick slips may be provided separately from the lottery tickets and may be reused to purchase lottery tickets with the same number selections multiple times. Machine-readable codes, such as bar codes, have been utilized to increase the efficiency of data input methods, e.g., from a pick slip at a lottery point of sale terminal. U.S. Pat. No. 5,239,165 describes a bar code lottery ticket handling system such that a customer may jointly purchase a lottery ticket along with other items such as groceries. In this system, pick slips include a bar coded transaction number which may be communicated to a lottery device at a check stand. Other systems may include a customer-operated terminal that allows a customer to print a bar coded pick slip that may be tendered when a lottery ticket is purchased. The numbers picked by the customer may be encoded on the pick slip in an extended field bar code. The machine-readable codes speed the transaction of purchasing a lottery ticket, reducing the amount of attendant time required and the concomitant lines for popular games.
U.S. Published patent application No. 2001/0052083 describes presentation of a ticket with machine-readable indicia for authorization of user access to an application server in a wireless local area network. Machine-readable indicia are printed on a portable, physical ticket and the ticket is presented to an electro-optical reader for reading the indicia. This reusable card may thus save customer time as well as attendant time.
In some jurisdictions, lottery tickets are sold by individuals carrying portable terminals. In some of these jurisdictions the individuals selling the tickets may be visually impaired, e.g., in a lottery to benefit the blind. Large pick slip generators or readers are impractical for such applications. Accordingly, machine-readable pick slips that do not involve large and/or expensive equipment for creating and/or reading lottery pick slips are needed.